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At the height of the phone hacking scandal, I was offered £140,000 to appear on Celebrity Big Brother. I’ve got George Galloway to thank for turning it down, but I’m glad that Matt Hancock took a risk and signed up for I’m a celebrity.
Why do people have autism, ADHD and other neurological 'disorders'? Recent research tries to understand the condition in terms of evolutionary theory. It's opening up a debate about public policy.
My guest this week is John Robb, Punk Rock's renaissance man. John is a wordsmith, a musician, a thinker of big ideas, and an impresario.
At sixty, he's also fit as a butchers dog and could be mistaken for forty on a good day.
I spoke to John about music, culture, the North and generally putting the world to rights, and I think you'll enjoy his interesting and lively self deprecating humorous conversation.
Listen to Persons of Interest featuring Eddie Izzard, Sandie Shaw, Cosmo Landesman, Professor Edith Hall, Ian Livingstone and more.
During my 20 years as a Labour MP, I met extraordinarily creative people from many countries and professions.
All too often, my meetings were fleeting. Now I have corrected this, as I spend time for longer, informal conversations to find out what drives successful artists, writers, actors, academics and musicians.
Persons of Interest is the output of some remarkably candid conversations that are both revealing and surprising. During the first series, I talk garter belts, endurance training and gender fluidity with Eddie Izzard. British music icon Sandie Shaw explains how to move a river, Hanif Kureshi sets out his dream of a future creative Utopia and Cosmo Landesman educates me in the etiquette of bumping into your own brother at an S&M Club.
This week the government published a report into a mass death of sea life on the North East coast of Britain. The review concluded it was probably down to a new unique illness, but not all marine experts hold this view. Many claim the report failed to explain other species mortalities.
This week, the government reneged on a manifesto commitment to plant trees at a rate that will give us 17.5% of the country’s land covered in trees. I joined the debate on setting a new environmental target of 16.5% coverage.
If you can cope with watching me speak for four and a bit minutes, here is my first speech in the House of Lords. I hoped to describe Wyre Forest and big up Bewdley Civic Society, but debate time was cut. I’ll find another opportunity to do this in the new year.
If you can cope with watching me speak for four and a bit minutes, here is my first speech in the House of Lords. I hoped to describe Wyre Forest and big up Bewdley Civic Society, but debate time was cut. I’ll find another opportunity to do this in the new year.